In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:

75 MERGENTHALER’S LINOTYPE MACHINES, 1883–1972 4 The Linotype machine was a work in progress. Over its production life, it underwent changes, modifications , and additions (by both the company and third parties). Its basic operating principles did not change: Linotype composing machines are operated from a keyboard (because Clephane had worked with the typewriter). Pressing a key releases a brass matrix (mold), also called a mat, for each letter from a magazine. These mats are assembled into a line, and that line is then cast as a single piece of type metal, called a slug, and ejected into a tray. (Since molten metal is injected into the assembled mats, the process is called “hot metal” composition.) The matrices are then returned to the type magazine from which they came, to be used again. Each set of mats is a single point size in a single typeface, so to change sizes or styles, or to include accents or other special (pi) characters, the Linotype operator needed to switch mats, either by hand or by changing to a different magazine on some models called “mixers.” Many improvements were introduced by Linotype to minimize the inconvenience of changing sizes and styles. 1883: ROTARY MATRIX MACHINE1 Finger keys controlled a rotary-type wheel equipped with projecting characters. The characters were selected via the keyboard and indented in a papier-mâch é strip. The matrix strip thus formed was then cut up into lengths and secured to a flat backing sheet in such a way as to form a page or column matrix. Justification of the lines was effected by crimping or cutting the matrix strips. Next, type metal was cast into the assembled matrix strips. Molten metal was then poured into the matrix strip (now a mold) producing the relief printing plate. QWERTY VERSUS ETAOIN By 1885, the Remington typewriter had been on the market for a decade, and typists were familiar with the QWERTY keyboard (so named for the first six letters on the top row). Financial backer Whitelaw Reid wrote to Mergenthaler on December 29, 1885, noting that James Clephane had said that recent improvements would allow him to use the typewriter keyboard on the machine. He reasoned that if using that keyboard involved no mechanical difficulties and would not delay matters, it would be a great advantage over the Linotype’s current ETAOIN keyboard. It would give them the benefit of a large body of operators who were already familiar with it. Mergenthaler replied by return post that Clephane was mistaken. The improvements to the keyboard related to speed and reliability, and it was not convenient to apply the typewriter keyboard to the machine. Linotype kept the ETAOIN layout. 76 1884: FIRST BAND MACHINE This machine, without a metal pot, had a series of vertical bars, each with a full alphabet of type and space characters, projecting from its surface. The bars descended at the touch of a finger key, until each bar was arrested to bring its selected character to a certain level. After the line of type was assembled and justified, a papier-mâché strip was forced against it to produce a matrix for one line. The matrix strips were assembled to form a stereotype matrix, and metal was cast into it to form a printing plate. 1885: SECOND BAND MACHINE This machine, with a metal pot, was the first to produce lines of type automatically. Vertical bars containing an alphabet of female characters (molds) descended at the touch of a key, and were brought, one by one, to a common alignment. Molten metal was forced into the row of depressed characters in the bars, thus forming a line of raised type on the front edge of the slug in the mold. The slug was ejected through trimming knives into a galley, and the vertical bars were lifted to their original position, ready for the next line. 1886: THE BLOWER LINOTYPE This was the first commercial line casting machine using small circulating matrices, each containing one character. The matrices, stored in vertical tubes, were released in the proper order by finger keys and delivered to an inclined chute along which they were carried laterally and successively by an air blast to form a composed line (giving it its nickname, the “Blower.”) This line was transferred to the face of a slotted mold and justified by wedge spacers. A slug was produced by forcing metal through the mold into the depressed characters of the matrices. The matrices were...

Share